San Marcos La Laguna

I'm in San Marcos La Laguna right now. Elisa and I are still traveling together. She's been great to move around with. Good conversations and similar interests have made it really nice. We spent ~3 days in Antigua not doin' a whole lot but chillin' out. We booked a shuttle to Panajchel (aka Pana) yesterday and got there ~11 or so this morning. This was a pullman bus that stopped for everyone on the road. The twisty roads down to the lake take a certain amount of skill to maneuver like the driver did, either that or lunacy. A fine line, right? We had no real plan. Elisa was interested in checking out San Marcos but was up for anything. We decided to go to San Marcos after some consulting of the book and our guts which you do by lancha (20 person boat, really maybe 10, but they fit 25+). After some negotiating (shhh. can't tell anyone else what we paid) we got on the lancha. About 30mins later (b/c it stops at a bunch of other towns and goes as fast as it's loaded) we were here.

The lake is absolutely beautiful. Surrounded by some volcanoes, the water is a unique blue/green color. Not as blue as Tahoe. In fact, the lake reminds me of Tahoe except for the many towns and native populations. Rich people have bought up lake front property and are building palaces, well palaces for the area...no scratch that....they're palaces no matter where they'd be. The seem very out of place mixed in with much smaller Mayan dwellings.

The lake is really big and as you look in the distance, the water sparkles like rhinestones or maybe even diamonds. The clouds and volcanoes help make the lake have an even more enchanted feeling. Too bad that doesn't last once you walk into many of the towns along the lake. We got on the lancha around noon, but apparently in the afternoon the wind really picks up and makes travel on the lake much more sickening.

San Marcos is an interesting place. Meditation retreats. Yoga. Recycling. A really small town center. Futbol played to dance club music (I think they were the equivalent of high school kids, but the match counted). A God awful dirty river bed. Not the most friendly white folks there running retreats and taking part in retreats. Mayan New Year ceremonies and a really subdued pace of life. Not a whole lot to do really.

I got my first workout in here actually lifting. Large rocks are plentiful. It's a very surreal experience deadlifting and push pressing a rock (with some push-ups mixed in for good measure) all while different Mayan women are singing songs in one of the various Mayan languages over load speakers that penetrate all reaches of the town. I was going to jump in the lake afterward but upon further discussion with Elisa, I thought better of doing it at this location (nastiness, unknown depth, potential parasites, darkness of the lake...yeah she freaked me out pretty good).

We're staying at El Unicornio tonight but have decided to go to San Pedro La Laguna tomorrow. This place isn't what Elisa expected so we're going to move on. Me? Well...I'd rather not spend too much time here either. Everything shuts down when the sun goes down and I'm out of stories for the time being.